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Atmel Corporation (ATML) Attracts Huge Call Buy

One trader is confident about the prospects of Atmel (ATML) even on a day of weakness in the stock. The trader just bought 8,041 August $9 calls in ATML at around 50 cents. This is a very unusual call buy for Atmel Corporation (ATML).

Atmel designs and develops microcontrollers and touch products which interface with the microcontrollers. Sounds boring, but this trader thinks things are going to get much more exciting in the short term for this company.

Of course, it is earnings season, and ATML is scheduled to report earnings on August 6 at 4 pm. Naturally this could be a play on an earnings leak, which happens on occasion ( can you say CROX?)

Atmel Corporation (ATML) is trading down 21 cents so far today, at $8.97. It’s not far off it’s 52 week high of $9.76. It’s 52 week low is $6.45.

The company has 18 analysts following it currently, with a consensus rating of OVERWEIGHT, and a price target of $9.49. Given that, we think this could very well be one of those world famous “buy the calls before the analyst upgrade and price target raise” situations we see all the time. Gasp. Yes it does happen, often.

Another plausible catalyst for this big call buy could be a leaked touchscreen deal with some major company. You just never know. The only thing for certain is this trader just invested about $400,000, and he didn’t just do it on a whim. He knows something you and I don’t.
While we are still licking our wounds from the TE Connectivity (TEL) fiasco, we are not really feeling the love for jumping on this particular bandwagon. But, there is still time before earnings so we may still jump in if the price gets interesting.